We are booked on the January 31 departure of the Star from NZ, but there is a thread with people on your departure of the Star on www.cruisecritic.com. on the Princess board. Their search engine is slow, but good so you should have no trouble finding the thread.

We are booking on the January 31 departure of the Star from NZ also. We are booking this week. My wife and I with one other couple will be going. We will be going two days before and two days after the cruise.
Maybe we will see each other.
See you there!
David B. Rott
Fargo, ND

G'DAY MICH,
I see you on several threads and, on the Pacific thread, of course. Did you decide on Alaska for sure or is the Mediterranean still in the running? We have been to both Alaska and the Med and I must say, given the two choices, I loved them both but this may be the best time to get the best deal in the Med cruise. Alaska is just about full of tourists now given the world situation but they are having a time filling ships for the Med (e.g. Golden 60% full for a May cruise.) Tthe Mediterranean is our most favorite cruise ever and since Turkey has been reinstated, Istanbul and Kudadasi (Ephesus) are absolute "do not misses" to coin a phrase. I have a folder of tips and recommendations on the Med that I would be happy to send you. I say, save Alaska for another time and see the Med. while the deals are here. Princess won't take you to a place you would be in imminent danger.

We are also booked on the Star Princess for the January 31st cruise from Auckland to Sydney. We have cabin B250. We are arriving early and spending 2 days in Auckland to get ourselves oriented to the time change. We are also staying 3 days in Sydney post cruise. Looks like a lot from this forum are going.
Frank-in-CA

Sounds interesting - I wonder how many more are going on the 1/31/04 voyage? We aren't thinking too much about this yet as we have an 18 day Pacific Princess cruise scheduled from San Francisco to Tahiti in September to take first. (G) I haven't heard of anyone else taking that one yet.
Frank-in-CA

We're on this one, too. We plan to spend 7 days at the end in Sydney and someplace else, but haven't decided yet where the someplace else will be. Let's have a Sailaway party to meet one another; we can determine the location later.

>Looks like there are a few people sailing on Jan. 31st. Still no one else on this board booked for the Star on Jan. 3, 2004. <

Jim:
For us, January 3rd was too close to the holidays. That's why we chose the 1/31/04 voyage. We are spending a few days pre and post cruise and wanted the later cruise. We'd all love to hear how yours was though. (G)
Frank-in-CA

We have early seating, too. The oddest thing happened on our May Tahitian Princess cruise. After a message board get together, which was immediately after the muster drill at sailing, we went our separate ways to the dining room. Would you believe that every person at our table for 8 was one of those whom we'd met on the message boards? Additionally, four of the 6 at a nearby table were also from our message board group. We had a great time; the folks we met through Cruise Critic and Cruise Mates were super. Looking forward to another wonderful cruise downunder the first two weeks of February.

On the TP the muster drill was at 4, and sailaway was at 6, with dinner at 6. Dinner was open seating on the TP the first night, so it really didn't matter if people were late.

Actually, on any ship, the first night is different in that there's a huge crowd when the dining room first opens, everybody has to hand the head waiter a table card, which is then handed to a waiter in line, and he takes a couple to their table. That means that the whole thing starts late, so if you don't arrive at the dining room till 6:15 you'll still be at the end of a line.

We thought there was plenty of time for a party. We had all pretty much known each other from the various message boards. I handed out name tags with our "handle" and real names so we could tell who was who. It was just the right amount of time to get a grasp of who you might be interested in seeing more of later in the cruise, and to touch bases with others you might have arranged a shore excursion with.

Hope you all enjoy your cruise and your visit to Sydney (where I live) but can I please just remind you all about our weather and the need to cover up in the hotest part of the day and to wear sunscreen. We have a had a very mild winter this year and summer (Dec-Feb) will probably be very hot and dry this season. Last summer's hottest day was 45 deg Celcius (around 115F). We often have weeks of hot days without rain.

I know you are probably all aware of all this but I just don't want you all to get too sunburnt and not enjoy your holiday. Have a cold one for me when your sitting on the lounges.... in the shade!!

G'day Jealous,
We will heed your warning concerning the weather in Sydney. We'll try to prepare for Sydney gradually by slathering on the sunscreen while basking on our balconies in preparation. Sunburns can really spoil the fun of traveling and touring. There is nothing like a warm break from the chill of winter and we will be coming from the mid-Atlantic coast where low temperatures will probably be in the teens and 20's when we leave home. It would be un- American to return home from a winter vacation without a little color, however.
Why be jealous? Come and join us. There are sure to be some great deals coming up to fill the huge Star Princess.

My husband and I are booked on the January 3rd sailing. We are so excited. We have a limited amount of vacation time so we are not going to be able to do any pre-cruise or post cruise but still think the 14 days will be great.

Welcome aboard! We are all getting excited about the voyage Down Under and look forward to sharing travel plans with you. I sent you a separate e-mail also.
Look forward to meeting you aboard the Star Princess.

Hi
We are booked on the 31st of Jan and are going on to Bankok. We arrive 5 days early in Auck and stay 3 days in Bankok. Is anyone else going thru. It would be nice if we could all meet on board sometime.
We have been on a few of the Princess ships but never on the new Star. We understand she is a nice ship and are looking forward to the cruise.
Richard from FL

Aussie Cruiser:
I have another question. I've heard that Australia has about a hundred or so of the most venemous insects and stuff but that New Zealand, like Hawaii, doesn't even have any snakes. Is that true?
Frank-in-CA

We are from a suburb of Dallas and will be flying out of DFW. We are having Princess arrange everything, unfortunately that means we will not know much about our travel until 2-3 weeks before we leave. Any suggestions on how to handle the time change (when to sleep when were traveling/or try not to sleep when we are traveling) to make it the easiest on us in the adjustment. We also don't want to waste to 1st couple days trying to catch up on sleep. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I wish we had the luxury of the pre-cruise stay but we don't. Also, I am wanting to put the cruise countdown clock on my computer that I have seen others have, so any help on that would be nice.

OK first,
Bop, we would love to go, have checked the price of cabins even the cost of air travel AND I've entered a competition to win this cruise!! but as much as we would love to go we would have to leave the kids AGAIN. Not only would they not be happy but organising family to look after them would be a pain. I have thought about taking them.... but.... I think I would rather go without them.

Frank, Auckland will be quite warm to hot in summer but the south island will be slightly cooler, Auck probably not as hot as Syd/Melb gets but it will just depend on the day. Sunscreen will still be needed. Your right NZ has no snakes... lucky them coz Australia has all the deadlist snakes in the world but don't worry they don't ALL live in Syd/Melb or Hobart...lol We do have lots of flies and mozzies though (mosquitos) so bring your large bottle of insect repellent, they won't kill you but they are darned annoying! This is where the 'Great Aussie Salute' comes from.
(brushing flies off your face for those who don't understand). It's an aussie thing!!

Richard from FL, there is a great group on Cruise Critic who are going on your trip you should go introduce yourself!! Look under 'Cruises'... then 'Princess' and the thread will read 'Roll Call 2-14-03 Star Princess, Syd to Bangkok'. Not sure if you'll find anyone doing Auck to Bangkok though.

Wilma, I change my watch time to the time of my final destination so I can get into the right sleep/wake pattern as early as possible... works for me others may have something else that helps them.